Wrotwood

Most commonly found in the stinking reaches of Feywrot Mire, the wrotwood is a short and spindly tree, similar in shape to a banyan, with a widespread canopy. Unlike banyans, its bark is black and flaky, crumbling easy into dust with the consistency of ashy grit. Its leaves are varying shades of crimson or red, with livid spots of orange or yellow that hint at its parasitic hungers.

The wrotwood is possessed of a strongly narcotic sap that flows freely when the bark is torn away. The sap is pungent and sweet, attracting all manner of insects and small mammals. Even in relatively small quantities, the sap serves as a lethal soporific. The corpses of the tree's victims litter the ground around its grasping roots, fertilizing its soil.

Although ill-omened, the tree has many uses. Its sap has been diluted to serve as a topical and oral analgesic, and some cultures are said to mix it into beverages to enhance their strength. The hard wood is surpassingly beautiful, coming in various shades of natural red. Though most often used as an ornamental building material, there are a few jewelers of sufficient skill to fashion trinkets and baubles from the unyielding wood.